ARLINGTON, Texas — The renovations at Rangers Ballpark are almost 70 percent complete and the new-look park remains on schedule to be ready for Opening Day.
A tour Wednesday provided an update on the construction at the park, including the revamped Vandergriff Plaza as well as the Batter's Eye restaurant, new sports bar and kid's zone.
"We are targeting the third week of March to be substantially complete," said Rob Matwick, the club's executive vice president for ballpark and event operations.
Installation for the glass for the Batter's Eye club, the new restaurant in center field, was scheduled to start being installed Wednesday. The four new concession stands in the outfield are also taking shape as well as the location for the new video board in center field.
The outfield looks completely different than it did in November as the renovations began two days after the World Series. Good weather and long work hours have made it possible for the project to be done from start to scheduled completion in approximately six months.
"The biggest challenge is timeframe," Matwick said. "To Manhattan's credit (the general contractor) they've done a great job of working with sub-contractors in terms of weekly meetings, daily meetings. The architects and construction people are here every day, so if issues come up we can be here in minutes to sit and talk about it and resolve it."
In addition to the construction, the makeup of what's going to be in the new area is also taking shape. In the new kid's zone, there will be a play area that includes a climbing wall and slides. There will also be an area to play electronic games.
The four concession stands in centerfield will include new offerings. Smokehouse 557 will sell smoked meats. A taqueria will also sell street tacos and there will be homemade tortillas on a daily basis.
One concession area that will likely be addressed soon is whether or not the park will feature any new Japanese fare with the addition of Yu Darvish to the pitching staff.
"We've talked to our culinary group and we're kicking around some stuff," said Shawn Mattox of Sportservice, the team's concessionaire. "We don't know if it's a dedicated stand or if we have some options available in our current locations. We're looking into that. We recognize the amount of people that are going to come out and support him (Darvish) and we want to have something available."
